Shire Announces Sixth Annual Scholarship for Individuals With ADHD
Lexington, MA (PRWEB) January 07, 2016 -- Intended for U.S. Audience Only - Shire plc (LSE: SHP, NASDAQ: SHPG) announces the launch of the 2016 Michael Yasick ADHD Scholarship. The scholarship program is for legal residents of the United States who are under the care of a licensed health care professional for Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and are accepted to or enrolled in undergraduate programs at accredited colleges, universities, trade schools, technical schools, or vocational schools located in the US.
The Michael Yasick ADHD Scholarship by Shire awards each recipient $2,000 in tuition assistance and one year of ADHD coaching services provided by the Edge Foundation to assist in meeting the challenges of higher education. Fifty nationally based scholarships and five employee-related scholarships will be awarded in June 2016. The deadline to apply is March 9, 2016.
Since the start of the program in 2011, Shire has awarded 293 national scholarships and 22 employee scholarships. To see a full list of scholarship recipients, visit http://www.ShireADHDscholarship.com.
In 2014, Shire renamed the scholarship in memory of Michael Yasick, a senior executive at Shire whose vision made the scholarship possible. Mike envisioned the Shire ADHD Scholarship as a way to recognize brave individuals with ADHD who work hard to overcome the challenges of the condition and to help them continue their educational pursuits.
“Michael Yasick’s legacy of making a difference for individuals with ADHD lives on in the scholarship program, and Shire is proud to support so many talented students in his name,” said Perry Sternberg, head of Shire’s Neuroscience Business Unit.
The Michael Yasick ADHD Scholarship by Shire also includes a year of weekly sessions with ADHD coaches from the Edge Foundation. In addition to weekly coaching sessions via phone or online video chat, ADHD coaches check in via e-mail, text, or phone to assist students in meeting their goals. This support may be important for students transitioning to the higher education environment because they have more free time and less adult supervision.
Neil Peterson, CEO and Founder of the Edge Foundation, said, "Shire’s scholarship program assists students with ADHD to pursue their dream of higher education. We are pleased and honored to be a part of this significant effort.”
The Edge Foundation is a Seattle-based international nonprofit organization that provides access to qualified, professional coaches for students with ADHD. For more information about the Edge Foundation, visit http://www.edgefoundation.org.
The Michael Yasick ADHD Scholarship by Shire is part of Shire’s patient-centric approach that provides support to ADHD patients and their caregivers.
Please visit http://www.ShireADHDscholarship.com to learn more about the scholarship, the eligibility requirements and to view its governing rules and regulations.
About ADHD
Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, or ADHD, is a neurobehavioral disorder that manifests as a persistent pattern of inattention and/or hyperactivity-impulsivity that interferes with functioning or development and is inconsistent with developmental level.
ADHD is one of the most common childhood psychiatric disorders. An estimated 11 percent (6.4 million) of US school-aged children have been diagnosed with ADHD in their lifetime, based on the 2011/12 National Survey of Children’s Health, in which parents were asked if a health care practitioner had ever told them their child had ADD or ADHD. Although many people tend to think of ADHD as a childhood problem, 60% to 85% of children with ADHD may continue to meet the criteria for the disorder during their teenage years. Nearly 50% of children with ADHD may continue to meet the criteria for the disorder in adulthood, based on parent report. The disorder is estimated to affect 4.4 percent of US adults aged 18 to 44 based on results from the National Comorbidity Survey Replication. When this percentage is extrapolated to the full US population aged 18 and over, approximately 10 million adults are estimated to have ADHD. Drug treatment may not be appropriate for all patients with ADHD.
The specific etiology of ADHD is unknown. The diagnosis is made utilizing criteria specified in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition, (DSM-5®) or International Classification of Diseases, 10th revision (ICD-10). Only a trained health care professional can evaluate and diagnose ADHD.
Standard treatments include educational approaches and/or psychological therapies which may include behavioral modification, and/or medication.
For further information please contact:
Gwen Fisher gfisher(at)shire(dot)com +1 484-595-9836
Charlotte Zang czang(at)benchworks(dot)com +1 410-810-8862
NOTES TO EDITORS
Shire enables people with life-altering conditions to lead better lives.
Our strategy is to focus on developing and marketing innovative specialty medicines to meet significant unmet patient needs.
We focus on providing treatments in Rare Diseases, Neuroscience, Gastrointestinal and Internal Medicine, and we are developing treatments for symptomatic conditions treated by specialist physicians in other targeted therapeutic areas, such as Ophthalmics.
http://www.shire.com
Charlotte Zang, Benchworks, http://www.benchworks.com, +1 (410) 810-8862, [email protected]
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